


Casualties of War

by zeinahhh



Category: Naruto
Genre: Character Death, Dai-nana-han | Team 7 (Naruto) Feels, Dai-nana-han | Team 7 (Naruto)-centric, Everything Is Unresolved, Everything is Beautiful and Everything Hurts, Fourth Shinobi War, Heavy Angst, Hurt No Comfort, M/M, Major Character Injury, Naruto is Just Naruto, POV Third Person Omniscient, Post-War, Short One Shot, Shounen-ai, Somewhat??, Sorry guys, Unresolved Emotional Tension, Unresolved Romantic Tension, Unresolved Sexual Tension, Uzumaki Naruto is a Good Friend, idk why no one else is on the battlefield don't ask me, this isn't supposed to be refined literature lmao
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-25
Updated: 2017-03-25
Packaged: 2018-10-10 07:27:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,213
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10432320
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zeinahhh/pseuds/zeinahhh
Summary: 3am drabbles.-Just breathe, and breathe, and breathe.





	

**Author's Note:**

> TW: Violent injury and death. Sad feels. No real resolution because I'm an ASSHOLE nd I hate myself.

A shrill scream ripped through the stillness in the aftermath of battle. Sasuke looked up, tomoe in his eyes spinning in agitation and he leapt from his kneeling, exhausted position, suddenly energized by the fear that zinged like lightning into his core. He tore over, pushing his spent muscles faster and faster to where he could see a glimpse of pink bobbing frantically. Glancing hastily around the battlefield, he saw Kakashi sprinting far to his right, leaping over shrapnel and sprinkled corpses. 

As he landed, the mantra “No no no not him anything but him please God no” formed silently on his lips and he mouthed it senselessly over and over until he reached Sakura, blind to anything but his objective. He dropped to his knees immediately, loose and boneless at the sight before him.

Naruto’s eyes fluttered as he coughed slightly, flecks of blood splattering on his cheeks with every contraction. His cheeks were sallow with the weariness of war, and his eyes were glazed as he gazed at Sasuke. 

Kakashi landed nimbly, then stumbled to Naruto’s side, suddenly graceless in his shock. Sakura was rocking back and forth, eyes on Naruto’s form, flitting her hands around his torso in agitation, her grief and frustration clear in her inability to heal him. She began smoothing away his hair, wiping at tears that weren’t shed on his scarred cheeks, her gaze carefully avoiding the giant hole in his chest. Naruto cracked a pained grin at her ceaseless mothering, blood trickling out of the corner of his mouth. 

“H-hey,” he joked. “The ga-gangs all here.” Sakura huffed a short, grief-stricken laugh, pasting on a huge beam reminiscent of Naruto’s younger years as tears streamed unendingly down her face. 

“Hey now, c’mon,” She warbled, her smile slipping. “You can’t–You can’t go out like this. You’re Naruto Uzumaki, Konoha’s Number One Unpredictable Ninja, our future Hokage, remember? Remem-“ She dissolved into sobs, covering her face with two bloody hands.

Sasuke’s hands trembled as he hovered over Naruto’s body. His face was dry, he dimly noted. How, he wondered dazedly to himself, could his face be dry, when his heart was definitely crying?

A shaking, tanned hand, reached for his own, and Sasuke moved disbelieving eyes to the hand. It was a nice hand, he noticed. Slim knuckles and long fingers, with blood shoved so deeply under the fingernails that Sasuke was sure it wouldn’t ever come out. The hand tightened around his, and Sasuke lifted his gaze to the blue one full of understanding and so, so much emotion that he almost flinched. Naruto smiled, a grim little quirk of the lips, turned his head slightly and whispered, “Kakashi-sensei.” 

He had shuffled closer in an instant, both eyes open and brimming with a deep, aching sorrow, his mask wet with tears. “Ye–“ he swallowed in an attempt to rid himself of the swollen lump in his throat. “Yes, Naruto?”

“I-I’m sorry, that I was such a little sh-shit when I was younger,” He laughed, pain wracking his features. “I’m so g-glad you were my sensei. Ma-make sure that Konohamaru-chan and Iruka-sensei and baa-chan and these,” he paused again, gritting his teeth, “two shits a-all stay okay, alright?” 

Kakashi nodded, hands deceptively light on his students’ arm in contrast to the agony displayed in his tense posture. Naruto weakly gestured for him to come closer, and muttered, “Don’t let me haunt you, sensei. T-this wasn’t your fault.”

Kakashi disregarded the blood spattered on his ear when Naruto had talked and inched backwards, slowly, wearily drawing himself up to look down at his student once more. 

“Sakura-chan,” The blonde mumbled, smiling and showing off bloody teeth. “Dear, s-sweet S-sakura-chan. I’m sorry I always p-pestered y-you about those dates. Y-you are–“ He paused to cough body curling inwards in his futile efforts to expel the blood from his lungs. “S-so be-beautiful, so s-strong. I always knew y-you would b-be great,” He crinkled his eyes.

“You big goof,” She sobbed out, smiling despite herself. 

Naruto turned his head once more, his cheesy grin subsiding to something smaller, more tender. “S-sasuke,” he said, the single name chock full of memories and loyalty and kindness and heart and so, so much love. Sasuke let his head drop, pain twisting his features and heaving his chest in dry sobs. Why can’t I just cry? He wondered furiously. I just want to cry for him, the only one really worth my tears. So why can’t I cry?

“I-I’m–” he began, features crumpling in regret. “I’m s-sorry t-that we never had a ch-chance. W-we was-s-sted all th-that time cha-chasing each other, th-thinking we ha-had all the t-time in the world.” His breath was coming shorter now, and his words were stilted and jumbled. He chuckled, “F-foolish. I love you, b-bastard. I always-s d-did.”

Sasuke’s face crumpled even further, his heart crying out for the boy beside him. He gripped Naruto’s weak hand with renewed vigor, wishing above all that he could simply turn back time. “D-deadlast,” He forced out through a thick throat. “I love you too.” 

Naruto smiled a tiny, content smile. “H-hey,” He breathed. “Ma-make s-sure t-they rememb-ber m-me, huh?”

Naruto looked upwards and with that, Naruto Uzumaki died.

 

The remnants of Team Seven stared vigilantly at Naruto for a full minute, watching intensely and waiting for his chest to rise once more, waiting for him to open his eyes, to pop up and laugh it off as if everything were simply one big joke. 

He didn’t.

Sakura broke the silence first, doubling over with long, keening wails that seemed to originate from somewhere deep inside her. Guttural and raw, they echoed through the valley, ringing with her grief.

Kakashi slumped, strings cut, shoulder’s stiff with repressed sorrow. Why does this always happen? Why does everyone I love leave me? His thoughts resounded in an otherwise dim mind, in shock and on auto pilot. 

Sasuke clenched his fists so tight that his nails punctured his palms, skin stretched tight over his knuckles. He carefully opened his hands, paying no heed to his injuries and the tears that were finally streaming down his cheeks, and he grasped Naruto’s too-thin shoulders with a hand, smoothing his eyelids shut shakily. Sasuke leaned over Naruto’s still form, and gently kissed his forehead, his eyelids, his cheeks, his nose, and then his cold, slack lips. 

He pulled back and tasted blood. 

He distantly registered Sakura’s wails as he curled in on himself, folding in on himself and compressing his body best as he could, in hopes that he could continue folding smaller and smaller until he ceased to exist. After all, if he folded into oblivion he wouldn’t have to feel the deep, resounding aching pain in his chest. 

 

At the first feather-light touch on his back, what seemed like eons later, Sasuke drew his first breath. Sucking in great lungfuls of air, filling his chest until he couldn’t and expelling it with a choked sob, and then another, and then another. Breathe, he said to himself. Breathe, even if he won’t. Breathe, because if you stop now, you’ll never start again and you’ll simply exist, empty, ragged and frayed and void. Breathe, for it will ache but it will end. Just breathe, and breathe and breathe.


End file.
